Long Distance Call S3 Ep16
by Bad Day at Black Rock
Summary: Sam is skeptical when a town starts getting phone calls from the other side.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: These fics are based on real episodes from Supernatural. The characters and plots belong to the creator and writers for the show. If you want background on the new character you can read the previous episodes.

Long Distance Calls

Another day, another job, another avoidance of the inevitable reality they were facing. Some guy gets a "spirit call" from the other side, offs himself and they gotta rush in and figure out what was going on. Kayla was less than enthusiastic. Screw this guy and whatever his problem was, they had bigger fish to fry. But _no_, Dean had to go save the day and they had to make him happy.

The Caller ID on the guy's phone had read SHA33 around the time they thought he died. The wife wasn't overly helpful, but she did say her husband was talking on the phone a week ago to someone he called Linda, but when she picked up the other line there was no one talking back. Just static. Running parallel research on the husband and Linda, Sam found out they were high school sweethearts. They had been in an accident that the husband walked away from, while Linda was killed.

So maybe he really got a call from the dead that sent him over the edge. Whoop dee friggen' doo. Was that cynical?

"This number is over a century old." Sam commented from his laptop.

Dean adjusted his suit in the mirror. "The only problem is, this chick was cremated. She shouldn't be hanging around."

"Maybe she missed him and wanted some company in the afterlife." Kayla was pulling her hair back into a professional, clean look so they could go play someone important.

"Well then she's selfish. She should want him to enjoy his life and be happy." He looked to her for a reaction but didn't get one.

She smiled and tossed him his keys. "Ready?"

"We'll see ya Sammy." He opened the door for her and followed her out to the Impala. "You're totally digging the suit, right?"

"Always." She laughed and kissed him.

He smirked. "See and me personally, I'm not into the professional thing." He glanced over her suit. "Not enough cleavage."

"But it's what's _underneath_ that counts."

Dean chucked and got into the car. "Hopefully nothing."


	2. Chapter 2

The director quickly led them down to the basement after hearing how important they were, from headquarters and everything. He led them to a secluded little corner of computers.

"Stewie?" He stopped at the door. "Stewie's" office was cluttered with trash, half eaten food and coke cans. When he saw them he frantically tried to close all the porn windows on his computer. "What did I tell you about keeping this place cleaned up?"

"I don't know how all this got on here."

"Stewie Meyers. This is Mr. Campbell and Mrs. Remy, from _headquarters._"

He turned immediately. "Oh."

"Give them whatever they need." The man nodded to them and went back down the hallway.

"?" Dean smirked.

"No." He glanced at his computer and quickly close the window.

"Word to the wise, the platinum membership…"

"We need you to trace a phone number." Kayla cut him off and handed Stewie a small paper.

He looked at it. "Where did you get this?"

"Off a caller ID."

"That's impossible."

Dean shrugged. "It hasn't been used in a few years."

"A few years? It's prehistoric, trust me, no one is using this number anymore."

Kayla smiled flatly. "Could you run it anyway?"

"Sure, why don't I just rearrange my whole life first?"

"Listen Stewie." Dean leaned forward. "You got like six kinds of employee violations going on down here, not to mention the _sickening_ porn clogging up your hard drive. When my partner says run the number, I _suggest_ you run the number."

He cleared his throat and turned back to his computers.

Dean smirked to Kayla as she mouthed 'I want you' to him. Of course she did, he was awesome.

"Holy crap." The man stared at his computer screen. "Well I can't tell you where the number comes from, but I can tell you where it's going." He printed out a page.

"What do you mean?"

"Ten different houses in the last two weeks, all got calls from the same number." He handed Dean the page.

They knew what happened to one of the numbers, time to split up and research the other eight.


	3. Chapter 3

Each of them had similar conversations with people who had apparently spoken with friends or family that had passed some time ago. Kayla was particularly thankful she didn't interview the elderly woman who had been having phone sex with her late husband, poor Dean. Good thing he had a strong stomach.

She was the last one back to the motel. "What's with the long looks?"

"I got a call, from my dad." Dean answered sincerely.

She immediately saw Sam's skeptical look but she believed him; he wasn't the making shit up type of guy. "What'd he say?"

He shrugged. "Just my name, then the call went dead."

"Well, maybe he'll call back."

"Yeah, I mean everyone else I interviewed did." Dean glanced to Sam, given the look on his face their conversation hadn't been as encouraging. "I'm gonna take a walk."

She knew what that meant. "Alone…?"

He started to reply but stopped and thought about it. "Nah, no. Come on."

She waited until they were outside to question him. "Is he annoying you? You need me to kick his ass?"

"Yeah." He chuckled. "Take care of my light work for me."

"I take it he wasn't there when you got the call."

"No. And now, even though we've talked with nine people who verify these calls are happening, it apparently can't happen to me." He stopped at the front office and grazed over the tourist pamphlets.

"We just haven't gotten the semantics down yet. As soon as we figure it out we'll be fine."

"He's just mad dad didn't call him." He pulled out one of the museum pamphlets.

She smiled. "Exactly."

"Check this out."

"You want to do a museum tour?"

"Absolutely not." He showed her the open brochure. "Thomas Edison museum, containing…"

"A Spirit Phone." She read.

He grinned. "Let's check it out."

The museum guide was enough to drive you mad. Very perky, over-the-top kind of chick who used quotation fingers every thirty seconds. They managed to stick with her until their item of interest.

"Did you know that Thomas Edison, while one of our treasured inventers, was also a devout "occultist"? He spent years working on his final invention, which he was convinced could be used to "communicate with the dead". Pretty spooky huh?" She smiled and checked her watch. "And we're walking."

They hung in the back while the group moved on, Dean pulled out the EMF and scanned the phone but the needle didn't flinch. He grimaced.

"Nothing?"

"Nope. But you know, maybe it works like a radio tower. Broadcasting all over town."

She shrugged, leaning closer to the phone. "I don't know how it works. I've never heard of Edison's spirit phone, you'd think it would be a big thing."

"Well if it just started working for whatever reason…"

"Maybe something set it off, maybe it had something to do with the hell gate."

"Why not?" He looked at the description. "It set a whole crap load of stuff off."


	4. Chapter 4

That night she sat outside the room with Dean while he waited, phone in hand. It was quiet for a long time and she really did start to wonder about the whole job, when his phone rang. He jerked it up and looked at the caller ID-SHA33.

"You want me to…"

"No, stay." He answered the phone. "Dad?"

"_Dean."_

"Is it really you? How do I know?"

"_It's really me, you have to trust me. Dean, how could you?"_

"What?"

Kayla leaned in as he tilted the phone towards her but she didn't hear anything, all she heard was static. And Dean was responding.

"_How could you sell your soul?"_

Dean talked to him for a long time and she didn't hear a word from the other end of the line. Maybe only the person who was supposed to get the call could hear it. It didn't make a lot of sense, but neither did getting calls from the deceased.

John was full of useful information. He told Dean that he knew the demon that held his contract and gave him an exorcism that could kill it. Apparently the thing had been tailing them for weeks waiting for the moment to collect his soul. It seemed so crazy, all the answers they were looking for just laid at their feet like this. He told Dean he'd call him the next day for the exact location of the demon.

They went back into the room and Sam looked up to see Dean's anxious expression. "Did you get another call?"

"And what a call." He handed him the paper where he'd written the exorcism. "Dad told me this, an exorcism to kill demons."

"You mean get rid of them."

"No, _kill_ them. Not just send them back. To kill the demon who holds my contract. He's here Sam."

He paused but nodded. "Where?"

"Don't have the location yet. Tomorrow." He smiled. "This is it Sammy, this is what we've been looking for."

"Well you should research everything he told you, you know, just in case."

"Yeah whatever. I'm gonna get some sleep, gonna need the energy if we're gonna get this bastard."

"Okay." He closed his laptop. Everything on his face said he was unsure about this. "Did you hear him?" He looked at Kayla.

"I heard Dean talking to him. I'm um, I'm gonna grab dinner across the street."

When the door was closed Sam slipped his laptop into its case. "I wanted to talk to you."

Dean shrugged his jacket off. "Yeah?"

"It's just, and I know you got new information but in case something happens…"

"Sam I just told you dad knows where the demon is."

"I know."

"So, you're not about to have a conversation with me about what happens if we can't stop the deal are you? Because we're about to stop it."

He paused. "No. Never mind. I'm gonna see if Kayla needs help carrying the stuff over." Dean seemed excited which was a big deal for him, how could he bring him down right now?


	5. Chapter 5

Kayla had helped Dean research the information all morning. As far as the demon tracking them it seemed to check out, they had a trail of electrical storms and demon omens in all the places they had been. They must have happened after they were there because neither of them remember them. The exorcism was less positive; it did seem to be an exorcism but its origins and effectiveness weren't clear.

In the end it didn't matter. No amount of research could have stopped the fight between the brothers, Sam just wasn't buying this entire job. He wasn't convinced and it was infuriating Dean.

Sam finally just gave in. "We'll check it out Dean, we will. Just please wait until I get back to go anywhere ok?"

He looked at him. "Yeah." He watched him go to the door but couldn't leave it like that. "You know I don't get you. We've been trying to break this deal for months and suddenly we've got a lead and you refuse to believe it!"

"There's no hard proof Dean! All you've got is blind faith!"

"Well maybe that's all I've got!"

Kayla tried to soothe the anger. "We typically don't work with hard proof and given the nature of the information, it deserves a chance."

Sam shook his head. "That's fine, we're going to check it out as soon as you get the call. Just don't go 'til I get here."

Dean shoved a chair over when he walked out; she tried not to laugh at the mini-tantrum. "Don't worry about Sam, he's just being cautious, like he always is."

"It's like he suddenly doesn't want to break this deal."

"You know that's not true. He feels responsible for it, he wouldn't be that way."

When they got the information they moved on it immediately, Dean didn't want Sam holding them back. The address was just a residential house and no one was home. That was for the better, it gave them time to prepare. Kayla started on the devil's traps while Dean prepared the holy water. This fucker was going down.


	6. Chapter 6

It was night when a car pulled into the driveway. Dean watched the lights go off and turned to Kayla.

"This asshole is mine. Stay on the stairs unless I say."

She sighed but sat on the stairs, she could see how he'd want to take him out on his own. Maybe she'd get the next one.

He stepped into the hall and glanced around, trying to figure out which door he was coming in. Suddenly the man burst through the front door with a shotgun, Dean jumped back in surprise and dropped the entire container of holy water. Genius. He ducked behind the wall as the shot went off then charged him and threw the gun across the room.

The shotgun was unexpected from a demon but he came at him with full force now that he was unarmed. He slammed Dean onto the table and struck him in the face several times before he managed to shove him off.

Dean kicked him in the side while he was down, then again, then again. Hey the guy wasn't going easy on him either. When he tried to get up he threw him through the French doors and onto the devils trap.

"Dean?"

"I got him." He handed her the paper as she walked up behind him, she had better Latin.

"What is this?" The man looked at the trap on the floor and stood up.

"Your funeral." He nodded to Kayla and she started reading.

As she did, the guy stepped right over the trap. "You did this to my daughter too?"

"How'd you get out?" She looked at Dean, who looked equally confused.

"Did you do this to my daughter too?!"

"What? This is a mistake." Dean realized too late and the guy jumped him again.

He tackled him to the ground and started punching again.

Kayla sighed and grabbed the shotgun. "Get him off."

Dean shoved hard against him and he landed on his back, he stopped when he saw the gun on him.

"She was only nine years old." He sobbed.

"I'm sorry." Dean stated. "I didn't kill your daughter."

"Then what are you doing here?!"

He shook his head. "I don't know."

He sounded more devastated than anything and he knew Sam had been right. This wasn't the dead communicating with them, something was wrong.

Kayla put the shotgun down. "The calls aren't real." She told the man on the floor. "I'm sorry, but your daughter, she's not calling you."

They went back to the car with heavy consciences. Dean sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry Dean."

"Yeah. Well, you know, on to the next thing." He started the car and pulled out his phone, he had a missed call from Sam.

While he checked his message she stared out the window, another failed job. Another false hope bringing them closer to the end of his year. They both knew the only 'next thing' was finding Bela, finding the colt-their last hope of fighting off the hellhounds.

Dean put his phone away. "It was a Crocotta. They um, they're famous for drawing you into the darkness and sucking out your soul."

"Huh."

"Poor bastard." Dean shrugged. "Didn't he know mine was already spoken for?"

She sighed. "Dean."

"It's alright. We'll find the colt."


	7. Chapter 7

Sam had taken care of the thing before they got back to the hotel. They went through a six pack way too quickly and none of them had drowned the memory of reality yet. Kayla stood and stretched, grabbing the car keys.

"I'll do the run."

"Nah Kayla I'll go." Dean started to stand and she stopped him.

"I got it."

Sam smiled flatly as Kayla walked out the door. He scuffed his shoes on the carpet for a few minutes, trying to come up with a reason not to have this conversation. It seemed like giving up. It seemed so final. He took a breath and looked at the floor.

"So, about that talk."

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"Dean."

His tone caught his attention and he stopped. "Ok."

"It's about Kayla."

"I'm listening."

"I um, it's just…if it gets down to it…"

"Yeah." He responded, trying to save him from finishing the sentence. _If I die._

"How do you want me to handle that? Would you rather we keep hunting together or go our separate ways?"

Damn. Took the thoughts right out of his head. Sometimes he wondered if Sam really could read his mind too. "She won't just leave you."

"But I can push her away. Look, if we keep hunting together I'm afraid she'll become a target for everything that's looking for me. But on the other hand, I don't know how she'll deal with it if she loses everyone."

Dean sighed heavily and zipped his bag before sinking onto the bed. "What a conversation."

"I'm sorry Dean, really. I don't want to have this conversation but we're running out of time and I want it to be what you want."

"I know." He paused for a moment, gathering his ideas before thinking out loud. "Ok look. If you push her away she'll have no one left, no one to turn to."

"So…"

He grimaced. "I want you to keep her with you. Protect each other." Sam wouldn't let anything happen to her.

"Ok."

"Ok." Dean stood and went to the door, as he opened it he turned back to him. "But hey Sam, just…" He stopped and Sam looked at him expectantly. "I mean, you know, just…never mind." He closed the door behind him. _Just don't put your hands on her._


End file.
